• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.436-437
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• 2012

Double patterning technology (DPT) has been suggested as a promising candidates of the next generation lithography technology in FLASH and DRAM manufacturing in sub-40nm technology node. DPT enables to overcome the physical limitation of optical lithography, and it is expected to be continued as long as e-beam lithography takes place in manufacturing. Several different processes for DPT are currently available in practice, and they are litho-litho-etch (LLE), litho-etch-litho-etch (LELE), litho-freeze-litho-etch (LFLE), and self-aligned double patterning (SADP) [1]. The self-aligned approach is regarded as more suitable for mass production, but it requires precise control of sidewall space etch profile for the exact definition of hard mask layer. In this paper, we propose etch end point detection (EPD) in spacer etching to precisely control sidewall profile in SADP. Conventional etch EPD notify the end point after or on-set of a layer being etched is removed, but the EPD in spacer etch should land-off exactly after surface removal while the spacer is still remained. Precise control of real-time in-situ EPD may help to control the size of spacer to realize desired pattern geometry. To demonstrate the capability of spacer-etch EPD, we fabricated metal line structure on silicon dioxide layer and spacer deposition layer with silicon nitride. While blanket etch of the spacer layer takes place in inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE), in-situ monitoring of plasma chemistry is performed using optical emission spectroscopy (OES), and the acquired data is stored in a local computer. Through offline analysis of the acquired OES data with respect to etch gas and by-product chemistry, a representative EPD time traces signal is derived. We found that the SE-EPD is useful for precise control of spacer etching in DPT, and we are continuously developing real-time SE-EPD methodology employing cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart [2].

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.237.1-237.1
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• 2014

Etching is one of the most important steps in semiconductor manufacturing. In etch process control a critical task is to stop the etch process when the layer to be etched has been removed. If the etch process is allowed to continue beyond this time, the material gets over-etched and the lower layer is partially removed. On the other hand if the etch process is stopped too early, part of the layer to be etched still remains, called under-etched. Endpoint detection (EPD) is used to detect the most accurate time to stop the etch process in order to avoid over or under etch. The goal of this research is to develop a hardware and software system for EPD. The hardware consists of an Optical Plasma Monitor (OPM) sensor which is used to continuously monitor the plasma optical emission intensity during the etch process. The OPM software was developed to acquire and analyze the data to perform EPD. Our EPD algorithm is based on the following theory. As the etch process starts the plasma generated in the vacuum is added with the by-products from the etch reactions on the layer being etched. As the endpoint reaches and the layer gets completely removed the plasma constituents change gradually changing the optical intensity of the plasma. Although the change in optical intensity is not apparent, the difference in the plasma constituents when the endpoint has reached leaves a unique signature in the data gathered. Though not detectable in time domain, this signature could be obscured in the frequency spectrum of the data. By filtering and analysis of the changes in the frequency spectrum before and after the endpoint we could extract this signature. In order to do that, first, the EPD algorithm converts the time series signal into frequency domain. Next the noise in the frequency spectrum is removed to look for the useful frequency constituents of the data. Once these useful frequencies have been selected, they are monitored continuously in time and using a sub-algorithm the endpoint is detected when significant changes are observed in those signals. The experiment consisted of three kinds of etch processes; ashing, SiO2 on Si etch and metal on Si etch to develop and evaluate the EPD system.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2003

In this paper, we have studied the in-situ end point detection (EPD) for direct chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of shallow trench isolation (STI) structures without the reverse moat etch process. In this case, we applied a high selectivity $1n (HSS) that improves the silicon oxide removal rate and maximizes oxide to nitride selectivity Quite reproducible EPD results were obtained, and the wafer-to-wafer thickness variation was significantly reduced compared with the conventional predetermined polishing time method without EPD. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat etch process. As a result, the STI-CMP process can be simplified and improved using the new EPD method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.223.1-223.1
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• 2013

Since sapphire single crystal is one of the materials that have excellent mechanical and optical properties, the single crystal is widely used in various fields, and the demand for the use of substrate of LED devices is increasing rapidly. However, crystal defects such as dislocations and stacking faults worsen the properties of the single crystal intensely. When sapphire wafer of single crystal is used as LED substrate, especially, crystal defects have a strong influence on the characteristics of a film deposited on the wafer. In such a case quantitative assessment of the defects is essential, and the evaluation technique is now becoming one of the most important factors in commercialization of sapphire wafer. Wet etching is comparatively easy and accurate method to estimate dislocation density of single crystal because etching reaction primarily takes place where dislocations reached crystal surface which are chemically weak points, and produces etch pit. In the present study, the formation behavior of etch pits and etching time dependence were studied systematically. Etch pit density(EPD) analysis using optical microscope was also conducted and measurement uncertainty of EPD was studied to confirm the reliability of the results. EPDs and measurement uncertainties for 4 inch sapphire wafers were analyzed in terms of 5 and 21 points EPD readings. EPDs and measurement uncertainties in terms of 5 points readings for 4 inch wafers were compared by 2 organizations. We found that the average EPD value in terms of 5 points readings for a 4 inch sapphire wafer may represent the EPD value of the wafer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.142.2-142.2
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• 2015

Plasma etch endpoint detection (EPD) of SiO2 and PR layer is demonstrated by plasma impedance monitoring in this work. Plasma etching process is the core process for making fine pattern devices in semiconductor fabrication, and the etching endpoint detection is one of the essential FDC (Fault Detection and Classification) for yield management and mass production. In general, Optical emission spectrocopy (OES) has been used to detect endpoint because OES can be a simple, non-invasive and real-time plasma monitoring tool. In OES, the trend of a few sensitive wavelengths is traced. However, in case of small-open area etch endpoint detection (ex. contact etch), it is at the boundary of the detection limit because of weak signal intensities of reaction reactants and products. Furthemore, the various materials covering the wafer such as photoresist (PR), dielectric materials, and metals make the analysis of OES signals complicated. In this study, full spectra of optical emission signals were collected and the data were analyzed by a data-mining approach, modified K-means cluster analysis. The K-means cluster analysis is modified suitably to analyze a thousand of wavelength variables from OES. This technique can improve the sensitivity of EPD for small area oxide layer etching processes: about 1.0 % oxide area. This technique is expected to be applied to various plasma monitoring applications including fault detections as well as EPD.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.415-418
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• 1996

Etching Process, one of the most important process in semiconductor fabrication, has input control part of which components are pressure, gas flow, RF power and etc., and plasma gas which is complex and not exactly understood is used to etch wafer in etching chamber. So this process has not real-time feedback controller based on input-output relation, then it uses EPD(End Point Detection) signal to determine when to start or when to stop etching. Various type EPD controller control etching process using EPD signal obtained from optical intensity of etching chamber. In development EPD controller we concentrate on compensation of this signal intensity and setting the relative signal magnitude at first of etching. We compensate signal intensity using neural network learning method and set the relative signal magnitude using fuzzy inference method. Potential of this method which improves EPD system capability is proved by experiences.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.344-349
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• 2006

A sublimation epitaxial method, referred to as the Closed Space Technique (CST) was adopted to produce thick SiC epitaxial layers for power device applications. We aimed to systematically investigate the dependence of SiC epilayer quality and growth rate during the sublimation growth using the CST method on various process parameters such as the growth temperature and working pressure. The etched surface of a SiC epitaxial layer grown with low growth rate $(30{\mu}m/h)$ exhibited low etch pit density (EPD) of ${\sim}2000/cm^2$ and a low micropipe density (MPD) of $2/cm^2$. The etched surface of a SiC epitaxial layer grown with high growth rate (above $100{\mu}m/h$) contained a high EPD of ${\sim}3500/cm^2$ and a high MPD of ${\sim}500/cm^2$, which indicates that high growth rate aids the formation of dislocations and micropipes in the epitaxial layer. We also investigated the Schottky barrier diode (SBD) characteristics including a carrier density and depletion layer for Ni/SiC structure and finally proposed a MESFET device fabricated by using selective epilayer process.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.1485-1488
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• 1997

The capacity of memory chip has increased vert quickly and 64MDRAM becomes main product in semiconductor manufacturing lines consists of many sequential processes, including etching process. although it needs direct sensing of wafer state for the accurae detching, it depends on indirect esnsing and sample test because of the complexity of the plasma etching. This equipment receives the inner light of etch chamber through the viewport and convets it to the voltage inetnsity. In this paper, EDP voltage signal has a new role to detect etching failure. First, we gathered data(EPD sigal, etching time and etchrate) and then analyzed the relationships between the signal variatin and the etch rate using two neural network modeling. These methods enable to predict whether ething state is good or not per wafer. For experiments, it is used High Density Inductive coupled Plasma(HDICP) ethcing equipment. Experiments and results proved to be abled to determine the etching state of wafer on-line and analyze the causes by modeling and EPD signal data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.501-504
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• 1999

In the shallow trench isolation(STI) chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process, the key issues are the optimized thickness control within- wafer-non-uniformity, and the possible defects such as nitride residue and pad oxide damage. These defects after STI CMP process were discussed to accomplish its optimum process condition. To understand its optimum process condition, overall STI related processes including reverse moat etch, trench etch, STI filling and STI CMP were discussed. It is represented that the nitride residue can be occurred in the condition of high post CMP thickness and low trench depth. In addition there are remaining oxide on the moat surface after reverse moat etch. It means that reverse moat etching process can be the main source of nitride residue. Pad oxide damage can be caused by over-polishing and high trench depth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.181-184
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• 2001

Chemical Mechanical Polishing(CMP) of Shallow Trench Isolation(STD structure in 0.18 m semiconductor device fabrication is studied. CMP process is applied for the STI structure with and without reverse moat pattern and End Point Detection (EPD) method is tested. To optimize the transistor properties related metal 1 parameters. we studied the correlation between CMP thickness of STI using high selectivity slurry. DOE of gate etch recipe, and 1st metal DC values. Remaining thickness of STI CMP is proportional to the thickness of gate-etch process and this can affect to gate profile. As CMP thickness increased. the N-poly foot is deteriorated. and the P-Poly Noth is getting better. If CD (Critical Dimension) value is fixed at some point,, all IDSN/P values are in inverse proportional to CMP thickness by reason of so called Profile Effect. Weve found out this phenomenon in all around DOE conditions of Gate etch process and we also could understand that it would not have any correlation effects between VT and CMP thickness in the range of POE 120 sec conditions. As CMP thickness increased by $100\AA$. 3.2 $u\AA$ of IDSN is getting better in base 1 condition. In POE 50% condition. 1.7 $u\AA$ is improved. and 0.7 $u\AA$ is improved in step 2 condition. Wed like to set the control target of CD (critical dimension) in gate etch process which can affect Idsat, VT property versus STI topology decided by CMP thickness. We also would like to decide optimized thickness target of STI CMP throughout property comparison between conventional STI CMP with reverse moat process and newly introduced STI CMP using high selectivity slurry. And we studied the process conditions to reduce Gate Profile Skew of which source known as STI topology by evaluation of gate etch recipe versus STI CMP thickness.